Interesting report about something called "Locate X," and all the things Big Brother uses it for. Actually, probably more accurate to say "some" of the uses as I'm sure the article only reveals the tip of the iceberg.
Even with location services turned off, it's still talking to cell towers as long as it's on. The towers can locate a device at least within 25ft, likely much closer.
The only way to escape that kind of tracking is to turn your phone completely off.
But seems recently the general response from courts and legislators is that this type of warrantless tracking won't stand up in court -- and might get the police both poor press and perhaps censure.
Of course for many just having the charges dropped is not much of a consolation prize.
Is that, as I understand from the article, LE uses this capability "in the background" and doesn't overtly cite any of the info/intel in court documents like warrants, indictments, etc. Which means it could be a trickier proposition to challenge these practices in court. And the existence of non-disclosure agreements means that all involved parties can conveniently say they're not allowed to discuss any related issues, when they even acknowledge the existence of the program(s) at all. So, IMHO, this is likely to go on for quite a while (years?) before a suitable case arises to allow a challenge. In the meantime, all the tech companies and app developers who make money from trafficking your data will keep laughing all the way to the bank.
Okay, I'll give you that but I don't see where the incentives are to do that. First, they will need to know to look for you in that data (NSA apparently did not get much of a result from what one hears in public news), then they need to tie you to the visit and not just being in the area (or even building -- and I would be a bit surprised they can you in an apartment). Second, by completely violating a persons constitutional rights (which can have serious consequences to the cop or their department) they can charge them with what is effectively a misdemeanor.
Does that shit happen. Sure. How much I should worry about that? Not much in my opinion.
Let's face it, police have been using illegal methods to get an arrest and conviction for a lot longer than the internet or social media tracking has been around. It is not going to stop but how applicable it is to some random John getting busted for seeing a hooker...
Although, with the prevalence of LE calling almost everything "trafficking," there's more of a risk of getting caught up in one of those investigations than ever before . . . just ask Robert Kraft. So the post was just meant to raise awareness of how much crap in our everyday routines has the potential to bite us in the ass. And how it's getting more ubiquitous and intrusive all the time.
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